Thursday, August 30, 2012

new for old

The sandal on the left belonged to a friend. She loved them but they were rather knackered, and unbeknownst to her, her husband asked me if I could re-produce them for her. (What a lovely fellow!)

I spent a while sourcing the various bits and pieces - O-rings to form the foundation of the decorated strap, suitable beads, leather thonging etc, and experimented with the knotting technique. The wider interwoven central strap proved beyond me so I went with three thinner plaited straps instead.

I padded the insole so that it would be super comfy and covered it with soft leather. I made a wedge sole from layers of cork and covered it with hessian. The original sandals had a rubber wedge moulded to look like it was woven.

I enjoyed working on these sandals. It was a good project for figuring out some new techniques and improvising with hardware etc to achieve the look I was after.

About Me

Hello. My name is Emily Botterman and I am a London-based shoemaker. I have recently become mama to a Little One, so at the moment I'm thinking I'm more of a non-practicing shoemaker!
I like to have a go at making other things too and this is where I will be documenting my inspiration, projects and processes. Enjoy!
emily(dot)botterman(at)gmail(dot)com

***All images (except for the screen shots) belong to me, Emily Botterman. Please do not use any images from this blog without my express permission and a link back to The Botterman Empire. Thankyou.***